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Trancefrom magic to technology

Second Edition

Dennis R. Wier

TRANCE RESEARCH FOUNDATION

LAYTONVILLE, CALIFORNIA

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Copyright 2006 Trance Research Foundation, Inc.

All Rights Reserved [L.06051213]

SECOND EDITION

Published by

Trance Research Foundation, Inc.P. O. Box 84

Laytonville CA 95454

www.tranceresearch.org

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

with the publisher.ISBN-10: 1-888428-39-2

First published 1995 Trance Media, Inc. SAN 298-8569

Republished 2006 by Trance Research Foundation, Inc.

Cover: John William Waterhouse The Magic Circle cour

tesy of Art Resource / Tate Gallery, London.

http://www.tranceresearch.org/http://www.tranceresearch.org/

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Contents

Preface............................................................................5

The Magic and Mystery of Trance................................9

Common and Uncommon Trances...............................31

A Suggested Model for Trance.....................................47

Pathological Trance and Addiction............................123

Trance Analysis..........................................................152

Contemporary Hypnosis and Trance Technology......185

Magic and Trance Technology...................................205

Glossary......................................................................241

Bibliography...............................................................245

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A maker of idols is never an idolater.

OL D CH I N E S E SA Y I N G

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Preface

When I was ten years old, I was fascinated by

mathematics and anxious to escape listening to my

parents argue. I learned that by focusing my mind on

solving algebra problems I could enter into a

beautiful universe where tough problems had

possible solutions. My interest was so intense and

my concentration so deep that even though my father

might come into my room, talk or ask me questions, I

would have no recollection at all of his even entering

my room. Both my father and I were surprised that

this occurred, and when it occurred regularly, it was

accepted as normal, part of my personality, and

forgotten.

Later, in college, I found that I could do my best

work in noisy cafes. It did not realize at that time

that my power of concentration was a form of trance.

When I began the practice of meditation

(transcendental meditation) in 1965 I found that I

liked to meditate, and I often jokingly called myself a

meditation junkie. After several years of

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meditation practice, I began to teach medication. I

became fascinated by these altered states of

consciousness as they began to be called. I went to

India three times to learn more about yoga, mantras

and deep meditation techniques from various yogis,

swamis, lamas and sufis.

At some point, I discovered magic. I found that by

setting up some patterns, doing some meditation and

then braking the patterns that it was possible to

cause things to happen in reality. I was intrigued

but frightened of this discovery, and I decided not to

use it in my personal life. I did, however, write a

short paper called Homotopy and Cybernetics which

made the connection between trance state, magic and

certain physical patterns.

While pursuing my profession as a computer

software developer, I realized that I had become

addicted to computers, and, in a certain way, to all

hightech toys. Some of my colleagues were

profoundly addicted and would spend long continuous

hours in a deep trance creating software, debugging

programs, and investing neat software tools. I

watched their physical, mental and emotional

conditions deteriorate as they preferred a

relationship to a computer to a relationship with a

person. My brilliant colleagues in their technical

trances looked and smelled like bathless streetpeople

or hopeless drug addicts. Partly because of my

interest in addiction, I started a newsletter calledTechnophiliacs Anonymous, which addressed the

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problem of addiction to technology. After a few

issues, I began to realize that addiction and trance

were very much related. In 1990, my investigation

into trance began in earnest.

During the decades of the 80s and 90s, in many

parts of America, the interest in magic and

shamanism increased. I feel that the model for

trance i describe here is both precise enough and rich

enough to be used as a type of trance engineering

technology with practical applications in many social

and psychological areas as well as in religion,

spirituality, magic and the occult.

Meditation is a tool of the New Age pagans. Drug

and alcohol problems are everywhere in part because

the nature and addiction has not been well

understood. The world is becoming more

nationalistic, and there are constant report of cults

and fanatics gone berserk.

I know that what seems to be unrelated phenomena

magic, addiction, nationalism, meditation states

are actually only some of the natural effects of trance.

What i am trying to do with this book is to show what

i feel are the relationships between these phenomena

and their common basis according to my definition of

trance.

This book is basically the product of my own

interests and inclinations. It was written to express

what I feel must be true about trance. I waited for along time before writing this as I was certain that

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what I knew must be common knowledge somewhere.

Perhaps it is, but I was not able to discover a clear

expression anywhere of the general relationships I

feel are obvious to me, nor could I find a forum for

presenting my ideas about trance and my model for

trance. So, I thought that perhaps I should write

down my observations and ideas in a fuller way and

people who are interested in trance could make of it

what they will. I must state that my model has

grown out of my own personal inner perceptions and

realizations and not from any particularly specific

scientific or academic research. This is one of the

reasons the model is highly speculative. So be it.

Dennis R. Wier

Brutten, Switzerland

24 November 1994

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The Magic and Mystery of

Trance

Since 1965 I have been engaged in the research of

trance privately, personally and practically al

though during this time I was not always aware that

it was trance I was researching. And I use the word

research not in a particular scientific or academic

sense, but more in an empirical sense.

The results of my research in trance come directlyfrom my personal meditation experience over the

past 30 years. Describing one's personal experience

of meditation is not easy. Explaining what that expe

rience is about is even more difficult because spoken

or written language is not an efficient vehicle for de

scribing subtle, delicate and ephemeral inner phe

nomena. Explaining why a specific inner experience

occurred is even more tricky, first because it is sub

jective and second because the reasoning of causes

lacks objectivity. What I have done here is to use my

skills in systems analysis to analyze my inner experi

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ences and to express the results of this analysis in

some type of rigorous way. My professional back

ground as a computer systems analyst may tend to

make this book seem a bit technical in places. In

deed, what I have attempted to do in this book is to

analyze in a systems analytical way my own

personal realizations through 30 years of medita

tion as to what a 'trance' is.

I assume that an arcane subject as trance might

have a limited readership. Many mystic types are

likely not to be systems analysts, although some are.

Many psychologists these days are social psycholo

gists although some are not. Often psychologists

have little deep meditation experience, and although

many use word processors, they are likely not to be

familiar with practical systems analytical techniques.

In addition, because trance is a potentially controver

sial subject insofar as I am discussing magic,

shamanism and witchcraft and so on, in the samepages as I describe a technical model for trance, some

academic psychologists may perfunctorily dismiss

this entire work as unscientific or superstitious. I

hope they keep an open mind.

The magicians, shamans, channelers and witches

those who have practical experience with trance

might not appreciate what they may perceive as my

lack of a proper or traditional appreciation for or

mention of earth Spirits, Gods and Goddesses and so

on. It is true that I do not make many references toGod or to various spirits, but one important result of

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my theory is that the practical experience of trance

can now be disconnected from all those traditional as

sociations. I humbly suggest that those with deep

practical experience with traditional trance practices

examine their belief systems in light of trance theory

and ask themselves if they are examples of good

trance engineering practices.

I can also understand that it might not be very in

teresting for a witch to read technical material but I

feel that understanding some of the technical aspects

of trance can immeasurably help a witch to accom

plish her goals.

There are many people, institutions and organiza

tions in this world who have a long-term vested and

even a vital interest in maintaining and protecting

certain beliefs or trances. To disturb these beliefs or

trances is certainly not my intent, but it is inevitable

that understanding how trance works will have two

effects. First, for those who create trances, under

standing trance theory will enable them to make bet

ter, stronger, more compelling and more interesting

trances. Second, for those who are entranced, under

standing trance theory will show them what they

must do to break trances and how to avoid becoming

ensnared by them. No one can escape a trance who

has either desire or fear, and this is true for both

those who create trances as well as for those who are

entranced.

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This book is a bit abstract and there are only a few

practical exercises mentioned. Indeed, I have not set

about here to make any new age trance psychology

self-help workbook. What my intent was and still

is is to express as clear as I can some of the basic

ideas of my model for trance. For me, a technical and

analytical description is the best way, but I realize

that this description might not be for everyone. I can

only say that you don't need to be a mathematician in

order to understand the concepts, but if you want a

precise exposition of my trance theory, I have done

my best to provide one here. I have tried to present

my ideas about trance simply and simultaneously on

several balanced levels while maintaining a consistent clarity of presentation in line with my personal

experience.

Trance is an interesting subject for several reasons.

First, trance is a phenomenon which can be discov

ered everywhere, and in nearly any social situation, ifyou know what to look for. Second, until now, there

was no model for trance, so trances were difficult to

identify or to classify; the difficulty in identifying

trance has given rise to a certain mystery about what

a trance was. Furthermore, many people haveabused trance and therefore it has a certain negative

reputation no doubt originally from Mesmer, Sven

gali and Rasputin. Indeed, for some people, just to

mention the word trance gets them nervous. Often,

the reason for this reaction is the association of the

loss of volition with trance. What can be more un

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nerving than something you can't explain, like an un

known mysterious power, which has the potential for

making you weak-willed?

Trance is also interesting because traditionally it is

an important component of ancient, primitive and

modern religious, ritualistic and magical practices.

Certainly many ancient priests, as well as modern

day western mystics, channels, yogis, techno-

shamans and witches would be less in touch with the

sources of their knowledge without practicing some

sort of trance through meditation, ritual, dance or

music. In spite of the fact that all meditation prac

tices use trance-inducing procedures, it is clear to me

that most meditators have only vague ideas about

what they are doing with trance and have no knowl

edge of the theoretical basics of trance let alone the

extent of potential effects. Many meditators might

insist that meditation is not a trance because of the

bad connotations of the word trance and because theylack the technical knowledge this book provides in or

der to recognize what they are doing when they medi

tate. Some religious meditation teachers believe that

if you meditate long enough you will get lucky and

'have grace', but they themselves do not know whyyou get lucky.

Once you know what a trance is and how it is pro

duced, it will be obvious that all meditation practices

invoke trance. By all, I mean from the yogis in the

Himalayas to the new-age gurus and western yogis,witches, shamans, techno-wizards and even those

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who use trance but do not call it trance. Most medi

tators have no theoretical model for their practice;

generally they do not need to understand how or why

meditation works. They just need to do it and it

works. It is certainly possible to meditate for decades

without knowing how meditation works, just as it is

possible to drive a car without knowing how it works.

Just as you can be a better and safer driver if you

learn some of the underlying technology of automo

tive engineering, you can also be a better and safer

meditator by learning some of the underlying technol

ogy of trance. Likewise, if you are a shaman or chan

neler who enters into trance to contact plant or other

energies, it makes a lot of sense to understand what

you are doing so that you can do it better and safer.

If you are a practicing monk, priest, yogi, witch or a

magician you know that many of your practices in

volve willful ritual and both inner and outward re

peated actions. Reevaluating these processes with

trance theory will improve your technique and help

make these processes more effective.

Once you are aware of the essential conditions for

trance then the effects of trance do not need to be put

in terms that have nothing to do with the underlying

technology. Like a sophisticated car driver you will

become aware that the color scheme of the car or the

softness or smells of the interior leathers have noth

ing to do with its basic automotive functions.

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Just as automotive engineers have a certain respon

sibility towards those who use their creations, those

who knowingly create trances for others also bear a

certain responsibility towards those who come under

their influence. I hope to make you aware that

among the many worldwide organizations and insti

tutions which promote or maintain certain beliefs

and trances, there are many who practice what we

might call unsafe trance engineering techniques.

One question that should be seriously asked is: To

what extent should people and organizations be liable

for the results of their consciously created trances?

Trance is used in many forms of contemporary psy

chotherapy. The model of trance I describe here will

have practical implications for therapists and others

who use trance in medical or psychotherapeutic set

tings.

What makes trance even more interesting is that it

is so controversial. There still are some psychologists

who claim that there is no such thing as hypnosis. In

part, and perhaps for good reason, there has not been

any consistent and well-accepted definition for

trance. What I hope to do in this book is to define

and describe trance in such a way and with such precision that it will be relatively easy to determine

when a trance is, or is not. Perhaps then research

can proceed in a more robust way to explore the dif

ferences in the types of trances that exist, rather

than debate whether there is such a thing as a tranceor not. That is, if the model is good at all, it can be

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used as a practical analytical tool; and, the model can

be refined as needed in the future.

I would like to point out that the model is not a so

cial psychological one, but perhaps more like a cogni

tive behavioral one, and it might provide a theoretical

basis for future research into trance phenomena.

I would like to give you some of my personal re

search history with regard to trance.I did not begin my research into trance with a hy

pothesis about trance. I was more interested in

learning what characterized advanced meditative

states. Over a period of several decades of medita

tion, I experienced deep meditative states. I realizedthat these deep states have specific and unusual

characteristics, but I did not know how to describe

them specifically nor what they were. Were these

states a so-called altered state of consciousness? Was

it hypnosis? Was it merely an hallucination? I really

loved to meditate. Was this state then the result of

some type of psychic addiction? As the years went by,

I also realized that I had to admit that I was person

ally addicted to meditation. Because of this realiza

tion, I concluded that addiction must share some

commonality with meditative states. This observa

tion was intriguing to me, because I felt that a state

of deep meditation was a desirable condition and, on

the contrary, an addiction was a condition to be

avoided.

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I began to look for the common characteristics of

meditative states, trance and addictions. I quickly

realized that there was neither a well-accepted model

meditation states nor for addiction nor for trance.

Because it seemed intuitive to me that they might be

related, I came to the conclusion that both meditation

and addiction might be types of trances, but I didn't

really know what a trance was either.

I thought that surely if anyone knew what a trance

was, it should be the psychologists who have studied

hypnosis. I thought that psychologists accept the

phenomena of hypnosis and use trance as a therapeu

tic and investigative tool. I quickly discovered, how

ever, that they could not define trance in a rigorous

way either. I was looking for a specification of trance

every bit as rigorous as I would expect from a specifi

cation of a computer application.

What I found was that the subject of hypnosis and

trance is full of controversy; some psychologists claim

that hypnotic trance can be explained by other social

phenomena, and therefore argue that there is no such

thing as hypnosis. In spite of this controversy, I be

gan to study whatever hypnosis might or might not

be, and from there my investigations led me to study

NLP informally and then to study hypnotic theory

and phenomena in general and in passing to learn a

bit of the history of hypnotism and to read some cur

rent research.

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I was not insensitive to the fact that deep trances

can have profound effects on reality; as this has been

proven to me multiple times personally through my

own practice of meditation. Moreover, one of the rea

sons a theory for hypnosis or trance is so difficult to

design is that such theories must explain certain

physiological phenomena that seem to border on mag

ic, such as making warts appear and disappear, or

enabling subjects to remember past lives, or display

knowledge of events they could not have possibly per

ceived by the ordinary senses, or exhibiting physical

strength or mental skills not normally within their

abilities. Those who have perfected the ability to go

into deep trance and utilize these abilities seeminglyat will have held a fascination by the scientific com

munity, the religious as well as for ordinary folks for

thousands of years.

I knew that if I pursued my investigation, I was get

ting into areas that are full of mystery, controversialand highly charged: meditation, hypnosis, addiction,

trance, altered states of consciousness, magic,

witchcraft, religion and social control psychology.

With my systems analytical professional perspective

tuned to require rigorous specifications sufficient todesign a computer system, what I discovered written

by psychologists about trance and hypnosis didn't

make a whole lot of sense.

What is a trance? According to the dictionary, a

trance is a "daze or a stupor, a prolonged and profound sleep-like condition or a state of mystical ab

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sorption." Some psychologists define trance as a

state of aroused attentive focal concentration with di

minished peripheral awareness. In general, a trance

is defined as a state of limited awareness. These old

definitions might be workable for some people, but it

is wholly inadequate as a really precise or practical

definition. In most ways these definitions are simply

misleading. Yet, these definitions are a good place to

start as any in order to build up a more precise definition, in spite of the fact that these definitions do

not address the issue of the connection between

trance and the underpinnings of reality of interest to

yogis, shamans and witches among others.

If a trance is a state of limited awareness, then the

types of trance would include, but would not be limit

ed to, concentration, meditation, addiction, hypnosis

and perhaps include psychotic delusional states. Im

plied literally by the definition is that anything short

of enlightened awareness is trance.

In every type of ordinary consciousness there is al

ways some form of limited awareness. When you are

concentrated on a problem your awareness is neces

sarily limited to the problem. When you read a book,

this one, for example, you must be in a type of light

trance. In meditation states, the attention is general

ly inward and the limit then excludes the world, often

including the awareness of your own body. In addic

tions the awareness is circumscribed by behavioral

impoverishment. In hypnosis, the attention is on thehypnotist. Psychotics have limited awareness as

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well; therefore it could be argued that psychotics are

in a trance of some sort. Sleep itself is a limitation of

awareness; therefore, from this old definition, sleep is

also a trance. You can probably think of many other

social and psychological behaviors that would satisfy

the definition of trance as a state of limited aware

ness. In every case of these types of trance, the defi

nition seems to work: there is a so-called limitation

of awareness. If we include every case of limited

awareness as being evidence of a trance, then we

must surely either revise our intuitive ideas about

trance or make the definition more precise.

What is wrong with this definition is that a limita

tion of awareness is both an essential component of

trance, as well as an effect of trance. Therefore, to

define trance in terms of any limitation of awareness

is not really helpful from a systems point of view be

cause it mixes the cause of the condition with its ef

fect.

What is helpful in order to understand trance is to

conceptually separate that which is done in order to

create a trance from the known results or effects of

that trance. So, we shall first look at what ways a

trance is created, how we do it, and second, we shall

catalog and characterize what happens in a trance

and what the effects are and see if we can classify the

effects in some way.

To make this analysis we will need to make many

assumptions and leaps. But these assumptions will

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hopefully all be made explicit, and I will try to

require you to make few leaps of faith. I must

caution you, however, that the model for trance

which I propose here should be described as highly

speculative from a scientific or academic point of view

since I make many assumptions about cognitive

processes which may be only partially known at this

time. There is currently among the cognitive

behavioral types a big discussion as to what

consciousness is. I avoid this controversy by calling it

awareness which I never define. I am aware of these

controversies, but I am not attempting to resolve that

particular controversy.

It may be that the model does not necessarily add

new knowledge. What the model does is to offer an

explanation of certain types of well-known and sim

ple phenomena. It is fairly well known that if you re

peat some thought often enough then it eventually

becomes boring and you think about something else.We don't need to know what consciousness is to be

aware of this rather mundane and common experi

ence.

The model proposes that the mechanism of repeat

ing a limited set of thoughts is the fundamental

mechanism for creating a rather large but specific

class of trance. The model basically describes this

mechanism and then explores some of the implica

tions.

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In order to discuss the idea of a limitation of aware

ness more precisely, let us borrow some mathemati

cal ideas and assume that any limit can be described

by a boundary of some sort which circumscribes a

space. This boundary is in a state of flux but is al

ways closed dividing the space in two. Moreover,

there is an implication that the boundary constitutes

a type of measure on the topology of the closed space.

That is, somehow we can describe how big it is and

how it changes, as though it were a type of surface.

In a trance, the thoughts which exist within a

boundary of awareness tend to repeat. That is to say,

when a boundary severely limits choice for a sus

tained period of time, then the clinical characteristic

of trance will become more prevalent. Large bound

aries also contain patterns of repeated thoughts.

But, because a repetition is not frequent in such large

boundaries of awareness trances are not usually

identifiable as such.

Although my specific interest is in the boundaries

which exist in human cognition, it is important to

touch the toes of the largest boundary which circum

scribes the trance we all live in. Ancient Vedic

philosophers identified the largest boundary of all as

the mahamaya: the Great Illusion or Universal

Trance. The Mahamaya is the Reality that we all

live in, and it is also a trance, although it is a very big

one we all we all seem to share.

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The Importance of Trance

Although the Mahamaya or Universal Trance is im

portant in philosophical as well as in a magical sense,most of us do not operate on those abstract, mystical,

magical or philosophical levels. Let us set it aside for

a moment while we continue to develop the funda

mental characteristics of trance because what we dis

cover on the personal level, inside us, probably has

implications on the universal level as well.

Within this Mahamaya there are a great number of

choices. The choices are everything that may exist.

It may be difficult to recognize the entire Reality as a

trance, so let's go to the other end of the spectrum

where choice is limited to two.

When a car salesman is trying to sell you something

he does not tell you to chose between buying and not

buying. He tells you to chose between the green car

and the blue car. By limiting your choices the salesman enables your action and potentially frees your

money energy.

A salesman may convince you by the skillful use of

many trance-inducing strategies. He may discourage

your natural inclination to explore a wider range ofpossibilities or belittle other possibilities and he may

associate pleasant personal memories with the choic

es he wants to give you. He may claim, for example,

that driving the green car is like remembering when

you were playing in a shimmering field of green grass

on that lovely warm summer day. At the conclusion

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of his induction you may really feel that the only rea

sonable choice should be between the green one and

the blue one and you really do prefer the green car.

At that moment you are in a trance, you have lost

your will power and your judgment has been violated

along with your memory. You make an arbitrary

choice within the sales-magicians universe, pay your

money-energy and probably feel good about your

choice.

It is reasonable in this reality to have limits and

limited choices. Without limits, reality becomes

chaotic and sometimes may become frightening for

those who cannot understand what is happening.

When we can tolerate uncertainty and chaos we

have more options as well as more pain and disap

pointment. One of the underlying reasons for trance

is to eliminate part of the global awareness and to re

duce the chaos to a more reasonable and less compli

cated set of choices. Trance helps to reduce the chaos

that is attached to variety.

Trance is the mental condition which makes it rea

sonable to accept limited choices. Trance restricts

primitive chaos or chlinthonic energy and helps us to

harness that energy in the same way that a salesman

harnesses our money energy in order to create a sale.

In restraining the chaos, energy may be focused into

the creation. Trance, therefore, has something to do

with energy utilization and the potentiation of cre

ation. This is an important point.

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It is important to study trance in order to under

stand how we may increase the awareness of our op

tions while we are in many inevitable trances, and, at

the same time, to understand the inherent limita

tions of trance as a process to defeat ignorance.

Trance is a two-edged sword: it allows us to focus our

awareness, enabling us to accomplish many wonder

ful things, and on the other hand it inhibits broad

awareness, disabling choice. It is important to understand that trances in life are as common as grains of

sand and more numerous.

The study of trance is also esoteric. That is, there is

a component of the knowledge of trance that is hid

den. It is one part of the nature of trance itself to

hide and to be esoteric. One natural boundary of

trance divides awareness into the conscious and the

unconscious. This is one reason trance is esoteric.

The division between the conscious and the uncon

scious is the most scary division of all. We know

about one but not about the other. At the root of this

fear is the fear of death; it is the fear of the loss of the

ego, and the submergence of the "I" into the primor

dial chaos. What I hope to show in this book is that if

you can understand how trance works, then you have

the possibility to penetrate this veil between the con

scious and the unconscious in a certain way. That is,

there is a technique of both losing the ego and regain

ing it again.

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A Scientific Point of View

I realize that my definition of trance, as it evolved

from my personal experiences, may differ from definitions that are more usual, so I want to review the

subject at some length here.

The word trance is popularly thought of as describ

ing an unusual state of mind. Trance is usually un

derstood to be an altered state of consciousness, andnot the normal one. And the word trance is often as

sociated with the word hypnosis. Both words have

negative connotations in the sense that they imply a

loss of conscious individual will. The negative conno

tations may lead most people to be unaware of the ex

tent to which trance exists in all areas of life. Even

more important, trance techniques can and are used

in advertising and social control. Don't you think it is

time you learned to identify those techniques that

others use to take away your conscious choice? Mak

ing you aware of these techniques is one main pur

pose of this book.

Gilligan (1987) sees the trance condition as biologi

cally essential for all human beings. He says that

trance is experienced in daydreaming, dancing, lis

tening to music, reading a book, watching television,

and can be induced through rhythmic and repetitive

movement (dancing, running, breathing exercises,

etc.), through chanting, meditation, prayer, group rit

uals, etc.; by focusing attention on an image, an idea,

the sound of someone's voice; through relaxation,

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massage, warm baths, etc.; and through drugs such

as alcohol, cannabis, or tranquilizers.

Altered states of consciousness is a term used to de

scribe all kinds of mental states. The term became

necessary perhaps because so many people were tak

ing drugs, doing meditation, practicing hypnosis and

magic. Modern communication TV especially

made people aware that there were yogis in India and

witch doctors in South American jungles who each

had their ways of entering an altered state or trance.

The term altered state was an attempt to circum

scribe these special mental phenomena in order to

have a more well-defined area for scientific research.

According to most modern classifications, a trance is

a type of altered state. But I believe that so many

terms only tend to confuse what is really going on.

I believe that we are more in various trance states

than not. To me trance is a relatively common men

tal state and there appears to be a continuum from

what may be called normal thinking to intense, deep

and extraordinary trance states.

Because the nature of such a continuum has not

been well defined, there has been considerable confu

sion over the last 200 years as to what a trance is,

what hypnosis is, what meditation is, and what ad

diction is. It is as though arbitrary boundaries of

consciousness were to be constructed which would

somehow enable people to say: "That's not a trance;

that's only hypnosis and these are all altered states of

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consciousness." One current scientific view, for ex

ample, is that hypnosis does not really exist, and it is

grouped in the same category as leprechauns and

witchcraft; that is, a belief structure which presum

ably can be explained by other well-known processes.

This 'skeptical' conception of hypnosis was proposed

by Theodore Sarbin in 1950 as a social-psychological

alternative to both the Paris and the Nancy schools of

thought about the nature of hypnosis. This skeptical

conception continues to be a subject in academic cir

cles; as recently as 1992 Wagstaff suggested that it

would be better to disregard all the standard refer

ences to trance or altered states and to stick with ex

planations from a social and psychological perspec

tive. If psychologists were convinced that they must

abandon the term, perhaps that is one reason that

"trance" is now a musical genre.

Historically, a trance was the term that was used to

describe certain states that yogis, spiritualist medi

ums or channelers might go into in order to perform

their particularly extraordinary behaviors.

Mostly, one associates trance with some type of hyp

notic state of mind, and I will need to explore both

hypnosis and trance in some detail before describing

my own ideas, primarily because hypnosis and trance

are seemingly so closely related, and there are so

many popular misconceptions as to what hypnosis is

or is not.

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Trance and hypnosis are commonly associated

terms. Trance is also the term used by certain spiri

tualist mediums and yogis in describing meditation

states and other phenomena that psychologist might

refer to as 'dissociative' because something about the

personality of a person in a trance appears to be split

off from the usual response patterns.

One researcher in hypnotic phenomena, Orne, dis

covered that there are unique characteristics exhibit

ed by a person in a trance. Orne made this observa

tion from highly consistent verbal reports of hypno

tized subjects and from various clinical and empirical

studies. Orne called this alteration of function trance

logic. Trance logic refers to a set of characteristics of

mental functions that are specifically found in deep

trance as opposed to light trance.

Trance logic includes an alteration in language pro

cessing as well as a decrease in critical judgement of

language processing and in increased tolerance for in

congruity as well as interpreting words much more

literally.

Besides the 'skeptical' school of thought which be

lieves trance phenomena can be adequately explained

by the social psychological concepts of belief and com

pliance, there are other theories of trance that pro

pose that trance generally represents some kind of

psychological regression to an earlier developmental

state, or that trance is 'contact with the unconscious

mind' or that deep trance is somehow a selective use

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of one hemisphere of the brain. Some psychologists

(Janet and later Hilgard) would characterize a trance

as a dissociative state because the personality ap

pears to be distinct from the usual or normal one and

this perception has given rise to the cognitive dissoci

ation theory. The theory of the 'Fantasy Prone Per

sonality' of T. X. Barber and his colleague Sheryl Wil

son suggests loose correlates between naturally vi

sionary individuals with a rich inner life, and with

the natural capacity to produce extraordinary psycho

somatic responses, yet who are perfectly able to dis

tinguish their vivid fantasy life from reality, and who

exhibit pronounced hypnotizability and various psy

chic abilities.

Although classic hypnosis research has demonstrat

ed that people respond differently to suggestions un

der different conditions, a lack of a model for trance

is probably responsible for the fact that relatively lit

tle work has been done to determine the precise details of how each suggestion effect occurs.

When a phenomena such as trance lacks a model to

explain what it is and how it works, people are free to

make up stories and to impute a magic, a mystery

and a fear to trance phenomena which is totally unnecessary. The magic and mystery of trance is excit

ing, but fear and ignorance of it gives power equally

to both the healers as well as to the unscrupulous

who can exploit the entranced to their own profit.

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Common and Uncommon

Trances

Our Unconscious Trance States

Are you aware that you are in a light trance as youread these words? Most people slip in and out of vari

ous kinds of trance states hundreds of times during

what is called the normal waking state. Trance is a

special type of dissociation that helps us to organize

and process information automatically. You wouldnot be able to really understand the written print

marks on this page unless there existed other types

of mental processing going on which organized the

written patterns and linked them to prior memories

or associations. These other mental processing activ

ities are happening unconsciously right now. Some

people would say that this unconscious process is an

other type of awareness. Gurdjieff taught that to be

come aware that you are asleep is the first step in

waking up. If you are interested in being able to

modify these unconscious mental processes, it is es

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sential to become aware of the trances you are in; in

fact, in some sense you can count your trances. Mak

ing you aware of what some of these unconscious pro

cesses are and how they got there and how they can

be modified is one purpose of this book.

There are good trances and bad trances. There are

light trances, deep trances, short-term trances and

lifelong trances. There are pain relieving trances and

pain producing trances. There are healing trances

and pathological trances. These are just a few areas

where common trances can be found: hypnosis, mu

sic, TV, meditation, addictions, religions and work.

So what is a trance? To many psychologists a trance

is a state of limited awareness. Some psychologists

would also characterize trance as a form of sleep, or

dreamlike awareness or a kind of altered state of con

sciousness. Certainly trance has long been associated

with hypnotic states, and with the altered states of

consciousness of dervishes, shamans and yogis. Med

itation does produce strong trance states. However,

in my opinion, trance states are much more common

than is normally believed. We can also count day

dreaming as a trance, as well as watching movies or

television. Many relationships with people seem to

have trancelike qualities: love relationships, power

relationships, relationships with charismatic people,

relationships with gurus, shamans and so on. Com

ing into contact with drug addicts or psychotics often

seems to invoke strange trance states.

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com

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For many decades, trance has been associated with

parapsychological experiences. According to William

James and other researchers, a Mrs. Piper an ordi

nary woman in most circumstances could enter

into a trance and give information that was both ac

curate and which she could not have ordinarily dis

covered. For example, once, when a stranger visited

her for the first time, she went into a trance and de

scribed his dead father, saying many correct things,

such as the fact that he had a bald spot where men

are not usually bald, on the right side of the head.

She pointed to that place and the stranger said that

an accident had indeed made his father bald, asym

metrically, at that spot. Mrs. Piper also told thestranger many other accurate and uncommon details,

such as the pet name which only his father had used

for him, and the way in which his half-brother died

(Hodgson).

Laubscher, an anthropologist, tested a SouthAfrican diviner reputed to have marvelous abilities.

Laubscher went to a deserted place, checked that no

one was within his vision, took a purse wrapped in

brown paper, buried it, put a brown stone above it

and a gray stone above that. Then he got into his carand drove as fast as he could 60 miles to where the

diviner lived. He asked the diviner what he had

done. The diviner began to perform a seance dance.

After some time, he described the purse, the brown

paper it was wrapped it, and precise, accurate details

of both the brown stone and the gray stone. There

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are many other cases which have indicated the exis

tence of a connection of trance with parapsychological

phenomena.

In America, psychic healers are likely to prepare for

healing by meditation or prayer; in many parts of

Africa, preparation for psychic healing involves a pro

longed ritual dance. Dervishes twirl.

If the unusual trance state of a shaman or a yogi isdesirable, then we might be tempted to believe that

all trance states are desirable states. What might

distinguish the trance of a yogi from the trance of a

drug addict? What is the difference between a televi

sion trance and the trance that we experience when

daydreaming? It is possible to enter into trances

which relieve pain, such as when going to a dentist

who uses hypnosis to produce anesthesia.

If compulsive drinking or eating could be shown to

be trances, an argument could be made that trance

can produce involuntary self-destructive behavior

and therefore a model for trance might indicate ways

to control such behaviors.

Hypnotic Trances

The type of trance studied most has been the hypnotic trance. Milton Erickson, the great psychothera

pist, had wonderful and nearly immediate psychologi

cal cures in a great many of his patients. His tech

nique was called "Ericksonian hypnosis." Many peo

ple tried to explain what it was that he did, becausein many cases, his patients claimed that they were

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not hypnotized and they were not in any kind of

trance at all. Erickson's recorded dialogs were ana

lyzed for years to try to find out what it was exactly

that made his form of hypnotherapy so successful.

Richard Bandler, John Grinder and others were suc

cessful in finally analyzing and modeling Erickson's

techniques. They devised what they called "neuro-

linguistic programming," also known as NLP, which

is based primarily on Erickson's techniques. With

NLP it is relatively easy to hypnotize a person and to

keep that person in a trance state without their being

aware that they are in fact in a trance. The tech

nique of pacing and leading a subject from a rich or

varied set of thoughts to a limited, internal and im

poverished set of thoughts is a well-known technique

used consciously by hypnotists, advertisers, sales peo

ple, preachers and politicians.

Many stage hypnotists use Ericksonian or NLP de

rived hypnotic techniques in order to induce trance.

TV hypnotists on daytime television can induce a

trance after only a few minutes of seemingly innocu

ous talk. During this time, the subject can be given

posthypnotic suggestions to alter behavior and per

ception in peculiar ways during the TV show. Stage

hypnotists often have dramatic shows in which pecu

liar and unusual physiological powers can be demon

strated.

Television advertisers and the designers of commer

cials are aware of the techniques of Bandler and

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Grinder and use them often in commercials. For ex

ample, commercials will often attempt to invoke past

memories and in doing so effectively associate pleas

ant or strong memories with their products.

Cigarette and liquor ads are especially keen to use

these types of associations, and, in essence, they

abuse the consumer by promoting the connection of

healthy associations with their products. The trance-

induction potential of television media is well-known

and is often used for manipulating consumer tastes.

It should be no surprise that political candidates

know they must be able to successfully use the hyp

notic power of television in order to win elections.

However useful television is for commercial and social control reasons, it cannot be reasonably argued

that using trance in order to promote a political agen

da, is in the end, really socially beneficial.

Salespersons, preachers and politicians are aware

of ordinary hypnotic techniques and often consciouslyuse NLP or Ericksonian techniques in order to pro

mote their own agendas. As you talk with a salesper

son or listen to a preacher or politician on television

you might never admit that you were in a trance of

any kind. Have you ever spaced out listening to apreacher? Politicians? Computer software salesper

sons? Then you'd better learn more about trance.

Some professional sales training institutes un

abashedly teach hypnotic techniques to their sales

trainees. It is clear to them that if a buyer is put intoa hypnotic trance then it is much easier to sell a

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product. And this is true, but only because the buy

er's critical judgement is disabled. Because the ethics

of using such techniques on the unaware is question

able, some states, like California, have laws that give

you the right to cancel major contracts within 24 or

48 hours of signing. Supposedly, this gives you

enough time to "wake up" from your unconscious

state. The law is silent, however, on unwritten or ca

sual commercial contracts.

So how can you tell if you are in one of these ordi

nary, unconscious trances? You are in a trance when

your attention is limited and there is a certain repeti

tion of thoughts. In an extreme case, your attention

is so limited that it feels like "tunnel vision." The

repetition of thoughts might be mantras, songs, re

peating fantasies, or even the math calculations of

balancing your checkbook before you make that pur

chase. That song you can't get out of your head indi

cates a trance. Concentration, when the mind is focused on a specific problem or thought, is also a form

of trance. You could characterize the fundamental

nature of trance cybernetically as an awareness loop,

or a circular flow of consciousness.

This looping, or circular flow of consciousness, is

well-known as a mechanism for inducing trance. The

repetition of mantras, the whirling of dervishes, the

chanting and drumming of shamans, the repetition of

TV commercials all induce different trances by limit

ing your attention and overloading your mind withrepeated thoughts. The purposes may be different,

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the results may be different, but in my opinion the

difference in the resulting trance is mainly of degree.

From a systems analytical point of view, the looping

of awareness is easy to describe and seems to be at

the cause of a wide variety of trances. In my own

personal experience it appears that the looping alone

is the necessary and sufficient condition to induce a

dissociated condition. Taking the looping as the sin

gular cause of trance seems to offer an explanation of

a wide variety of trancelike phenomena. In addition,

this singular condition groups a wide variety of phe

nomena into the definition as trance or trancelike

phenomena. Once this genera of trance or trancelike

phenomena has been circumscribed, then it remains

to denote the differentia and conditions.

Whether you are passively watching TV football, or

engaging in rational rigorously precise thoughts, or

having an emotional jolt of religious fervor, or feeling

patriotic passion, or if you are an addict of any kind,

or if you have the compassionless mindset of a mass

murderer you are in a trance. Why? Because all

these states encourage a fixed, narrow attention span

and they all reward the repetition of an impoverished

set of thoughts. It is important to identify all of these

states as trance because they all promote a limitation

of attention. Because of this limiting of attention,

trance creates unawareness or a "sleeping state" in

those areas of life where the attention is absent. Be

cause the thoughts are repeating, the limiting of attention becomes fixed, and can therefore alter percep

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tion. That is, new information might not be pro

cessed correctly. For example, if the repeating

thought is "everything I see is blue," and the eyes are

shown a red object, then eventually the repeated idea

in the mind will make the object seem blue and it will

be believed to be blue; and red will not be seen or if

seen, not believed as really red. Brainwashing and

propaganda techniques use the fact that the repeti

tion of a thought can result in its eventual acceptance. Many types of trances, but not all, promote a

singlemindedness which can become self-destructive.

Some of these trances could be described as patholog

ical.

The genera of trance must include a wide variety of

trances, some of which are manifestly pathological

and others which add a richness to life and which can

be appreciated as spectacular or magical. What char

acterizes this differentia? What are the conditions

for a pathological trance, under this definition?

Many types of trances, of course, are not pathologi

cal. Such trances are used to enhance creativity, re

lation, problem solving, altering sensations, altering

perception, creating pleasure, humor, enhancing deli

cate and subtle understanding, to find new ways to

understand experience, to perceive old things in new

ways, to have new pleasures in life, to create the

courage to change relationships and in the personal

mystery of life itself. These non-pathological trances

also are created through the narrowing of attention,

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and the repetition of thoughts to create personal pow

er.

It is well-known that the skillful use of trance,

whether hypnotic or meditation, can increase tele

pathic sensitivities and other abilities. Janet, a high

ly respected psychiatrist and researcher in the early

days of hypnosis, reported extraordinary telepathic

success with hypnosis. Dukhan & Rao tested dozens

of students of a guru in India for psi. They found

that postmeditation the student scored significantly

higher in psi-hitting than in the premeditation con

trol tests. There have been many other researchers

reporting similar findings over decades.

One of the important effects of a normal trance is to

temporarily decrease body awareness and to tem

porarily disable memory. With less awareness of the

body and of the past, there is an increase in creative

potential. Latent problem solving skills may come

into existence easier when the limitations of the body

and memory are disabled. Short-term trance states

are occasionally desirable to increase creativity and

problem solving potentials.

What many people call concentration is actually a

trance. When the mind is concentrated on under

standing something new or solving a difficult problem

it may momentarily become dissociated and allow an

increase in creative problem solving skills.

Participatory sports such as basketball, football,

swimming and so on, require that the participant re

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peat movements. The repetition of these movements

combined with the limiting of attention required by

the rules of the particular sport or skill would proba

bly produce trance. In most cases, the trance will

cause both a decrease of body awareness and allow

for problem solving skills to emerge. It is these sec

ondary effects of natural trance which may partially

underlie the popularity of sports in general and to

give the impression that sports help to create valuable but nonspecific skills.

Computer games can also be used to produce

trances. Computer games are interactive, and that

means that they narrow the attention and feed back

stimulation to the player which engages their atten

tion even more. When players are in the types of

trances that a computer game produces, the players

become susceptible to hypnotic suggestions.

In some computer games, for example Endorfun by

Time Warner, subliminal messages can be introduced

to lure players into trance states. Subliminal mes

sages such as "I expect pleasure and satisfaction,"

and "It's okay for me to have everything I want",

however, can lead players into addictive states. That

is, players who may be unhappy or angry or frustrated in life could become psychologically dependent on

the positive strokes of some subliminal messages.

On the other hand, subliminal messages, such as the

above, promoting unrealistic expectations will even

tually only produce disappointment, frustration and

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anger. Is this simply bad trance engineering or is it

deliberate trance abuse?

Under the 1990 Broadcasting Act, television and ra

dio companies cannot produce programs or advertise

ments that exploit the possibility of "influencing the

minds of persons watching without them being fully

aware of what has occurred." However, no such legis

lation exists to regulate the computer industry. It is

not the computer or any media, however, that is at

fault; it is the willful exploitation of an induced

trance. Once the mechanics of trance induction be

come well-known, it may be that a reading of the

1990 Broadcasting Act would include even the choice

of words used by actors in a sitcom inasmuch as such

scripts when written hypnotically may be used

to influence social, commercial and political beliefs.

Even direct mail advertising received in your mailbox

contains hypnotically written scripts. Are you aware

of this?

It is also well-known that when you are in a trance

your attention can be diverted effectively enough to

produce anesthesia sufficient for dental work or some

types of surgery. Lamaze natural childbirth breath

ing techniques uses the resulting narrowed span of

attention to help reduce pain. This narrowing of at

tention, the concentration of the mind on maintaining

the breathing patterns, diverts the attention from the

physical pain sensations during childbirth with the

result that the mother becomes less aware of any uncomfortable sensations. The power of a mind in a

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trance can do things which it ordinarily cannot do.

Giving birth painlessly is only one example. Con

scious control of breathing patterns is used by yogis,

as pranayama, for example, in order to influence the

mind or to induce altered states.

Trance can also be used to reduce psychological

pain such as anxiety, fear, worry, as well as the uni

versal Weltschmerz. Instead of consciously address

ing the causes of the pain, trance can successfully di

vert the attention so that one is aware of neither the

pain nor of the causes of pain. While the use of

trance for specific instances of analgesia may be ben

eficial for surgery or in emergency situations, the use

of trance to avoid situations of a long-term or perma

nent duration impoverishes life and prevents new

possibilities. It is the use of trance in this latter

sense which makes trance into a form of addiction.

Hypnotic trance is only one way to remove pain. Al

cohol, drug, religion, work, consumption, and TV

trance addictions can also be counted as other ways

of removing pain. I believe addictions of all sorts are

forms of pathological trances a central purpose of

which is pain control.

If trance is defined as fixed or limited thinking, then

nearly all human activities create some type of

trance. The bounded circles of thinking that keep us

in trances are countless. The entire "ordered uni

verse" is a trance. But there is an escapists pleasure

in remaining in trance and a deep human fear of the

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chaos which can result if there were no trance "order"

to life.

Socialization itself is the process of putting a person

into a long-term trance. You do not go to work naked

because of socialization. The socialization process

started by parents and continued by religious train

ing, schools, universities, the military and employ

ment in different ways all create a multiplicity of

long-term trance-states, the result of which puts you

in a bounded circle of limited but socially and cultur

ally acceptable activity. Without these long-term

trances life would be more chaotic and perhaps you

would be more painfully aware of too many choices.

Every choice we make limits our options and makes

life seem more manageable. When we stick to our

choices at all costs we are in a pathological trance.

By becoming aware that we are in these trances, we

may begin to realize that we can also change them in

more creative ways. It is as Gurdieff said: to wake

up, we must become aware that we are asleep.

Religious Trance

The practice of religion for millennia has involved

the practice of trance and used a variety of trance-inducing activity. Prayer, meditation, chanting all will

induce trance. The effect of trance when taken to ex

tremes and in the hands of experts can produce many

magical effects, including the healing of the body,

knowledge of secrets, the discovery of hidden knowl

edge, knowledge of the future, as well as having an

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influence on the weather, on social beliefs and on the

outcome of war. In addition, religious trance can pro

duce an easy tolerance and acceptance for many of

life's inevitable disappointments.

There are religious healers who, by means of their

special meditative trances, can perform spectacular

healings including psychic surgery on others.

Such healers may certainly be envied for these pow

ers. Yet, unfortunately, even the meditative trances

conducted from the altrusistic motivations of a pious

devotion to a God or Goddess can become pathological

if they become an end in themselves. By knowing

how to identify pathological trances as well as how

they are created it is possible to avoid them.

Faith, or belief in a set of ideas or paradigms with

out evidence, often indicates, unfortunately, faulty

judgement, faulty memory, and possibly hallucina

tions. Since these are characteristics of trance, the

profession of a faith or belief can presumably be

traced to a repetition of limited ideas and the result

ing dissociative trance.

In general, it can be said that faith and belief are in

dicative of trances in which a reduction of emotional

pain awareness is the goal. I would be surprised if

the profession of faith and belief did not hide a hid

den depression for which an addictive trance state is

ameliorating.

Religions which encourage and promote personal

demonstrations of faith and belief often are attempt

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ing to create similar conditions that might be associ

ated with a single-minded devotion to God, but very

often what is really produced seems to be very much

like an addiction. Addictions do produce deep trances

and trances with relatively stabile characteristics.

But, however seemingly powerful the addictive

trances are, and how convincingly it may appear that

those in religious addictive trances are extremely de

voted and singleminded towards their guru, God or

Goddess, the nature of an addictive trance is always

self-delusion, deception and destruction.

Charismatic religious leaders often have stabile

trances and such stabile trances can affect people

who come into their sphere of influence as though

they had magical powers or had tapped into powerful

energies of an unknown type. These energies or mag

ical powers are generated by trance. They have simi

larities to addictive trances but different in an impor

tant but subtle way. The trance model which I describe in the following pages shows these differences.

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A Suggested Model for Trance*

Introduction

The field is open for nearly anyone to propose a the

ory of hypnosis. If the real work of science begins

once a community of workers has adopted a unified

theoretical paradigm (Kuhn, 1962), then, arguably,the real work of the science of hypnosis has not yet

properly begun. So long as there is no unified theo

retical paradigm the reality of hypnotic states is put

into question (Wagstaff, 1991). Wagstaff also argues

for the need of a change in terminology.At present, there seem to be two major schools of

thought on the nature of hypnosis: the neodissocia

tive, and the social-psychological. The neodissocia

tive model differs from the social psychological model

in that it is a systems model and does not assume a"purpose" to hypnotically suggested behavior.

McClelland and Rumelhart (1986) recognize that

thinking and problem solving are a result of what

they call "parallel distributed processing". Hilgard

* The current model is available atwww.lulu.com/trance

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too suggests parallel processing as a useful concept

(Stava & Jaffa, 1988).

I have a simple model for trance which uses the idea

of parallel distributed processing, but in such a way

that may be used in a systems or in an automated

measurement environment. I will rephrase some cur

rent problems in hypnotic theory, describe some

pathological trance conditions and some possible

therapeutic intervention strategies. The idea is not

to replace therapists with computer systems, but to

explore the theoretical implications of such a

paradigm. The implications of the trance model sug

gest practical applications in research and in thera

py.

It is obvious that human cognition does not function

the same as an electronic parallel distributed proces

sor. However, limitations in adapting information

systems theory to human cognition may depend part

ly on the fact that at present there is no reliable way

to detect the presence of a discrete thought in a spe

cific individual at a specific time. If there were such

a technique then the following theoretical model

might also be useful in an experimental context.

Trances, as defined by this model, are not difficult to

produce. In fact, by this definition trances are quite

common. Strong, spectacular and long-lasting

trances have popularized the false notion that all

trances are special states. The model implies that

spectacular trances can be produced through the

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modification of specific conditions that produce

trance. The strength of a trance can be objectively

measured by using this model. In the future, the ap

plication of the principles described by the model may

enable the researcher or therapist to design trances

for specific purposes and to objectively measure the

results.

Elements of Thought

At this point I will not define 'thoughts', but merely

note that they exist. To gain maximum scope, I will

use the word thought to include feeling as well. As I

develop the model, a more complete definition for

thought may emerge. The reason for this approach is

that without a system framework already in place a

definition of thought would be premature. However,

we can make some general observations.

We know that when we are awake we have

thoughts. We know that we think about whatever it

is that is important to us. If something is very impor

tant, we will think about it more often than if it is not

important to us. We may not know what is absolute

ly important, and, for many reasons, we might not

think at all about what is truly vital. Whether im

portant or not, true or not, vital or not, our thoughts

repeat.

I think no one has ever counted their thoughts, but

we can assume that a specific thought will repeat a

countable number of times over a specific time period.

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For example, the thought that is symbolized by moth

er may repeat 156,792 times over a period of a life

time. On the other hand, the thought that is symbol

ized by father may repeat only 14 times over the peri

od of time from 7:16 am Sunday until 16:45 Monday.

Why count thoughts when they seem to spring to

consciousness and then disappear entirely as if obey

ing unknown forces? Why count specific thoughts if

they have such a short life and spring from such a

deep and dark well? Why count them if they are a

part of a complex sequence, and have their own un

knowable agendas? Ephemeral thoughts have no

weight or mass, and taken out of context, they may

seem to be of very little importance.

There is also the problem of measuring thoughts.

Although it is obvious that we have distinct thoughts,

it is not yet possible to count them reliably. We can

not say with certainty that any given person had an

extraordinary number of thoughts about "chickens"

or "Jesus" and what an extraordinary number of

thoughts might mean. On the other hand, there is no

reliable mechanism known at present to be able to

say that any given person "never thought about Zanz

ibar."

Thoughts are also difficult to categorize. What does

it mean to think the word "hair," for example? The

multiple associations of a word, its dependency on its

changing contexts as well as the subjective condi

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tions, all make measurement and categorization diffi

cult.

Thoughts, Thought Objects and Brain Waves

As it functions the brain generates minute electrical

charges. Presumably, these minute electrical charges

represent some of the components of thoughts or bear

some relationship with what we subjectively experi

ence as thought objects or states of awareness. These

electrical charges form a variety of waves which have

been identified as follows:

Beta Waves

Beta waves are the most common of the brain wave

patterns that occur when awake. These occur during

period of intense concentration, problem solving, and

focused analysis. The frequency of beta waves is be

tween 13-30 Hz (cycles per second).

Alpha Waves

Alpha waves are most common when we are mental

ly alert, calm and relaxed, or when day-dreaming.

The frequency of alpha waves is between 8-12 Hz.

Theta Waves

Theta waves occur when we are mentally drowsy

and unfocused, during deep calmness or relaxation,

as for example we make the transitions from drowsi

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ness to sleep or from sleep to the waking state. The

frequency of theta waves is between 4-7 Hz.

Delta Waves

Delta waves occur primarily during deep sleep or

states of unconsciousness. The frequency of delta

waves is between 0.5-4 Hz.

Brain Wave Synchronization and the FrequencyFollowing Effect

2000 years ago Ptolemy and Apuleius noted that dif

fering rates of flickering lights had an effect on states

of awareness and on the production of epilepsy. In

the late 1920s it was discovered that when light was

played on the closed eyelids an echoing production of

brain wave frequencies was produced. In 1965 Grey

used a stroboscope to send rhythmic light flashes into

the eyes at a rate of from 10-25 Hz. He discovered

that this stimulated similar brain wave activity.

More recent research by Budzynski, Oestrander and

others, in the use of brain machines suggest that

photic or direct electrical stimulation of the brain in

the theta range appears to facilitate rapid learning,

produce deep relaxation, euphoria, an increase in cre

ativity, problem solving ability and is apparently as

sociated with enhanced concentration and accelerated

learning.

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It seems as though there is a mechanism in which

the repeated stimulation can produce effects which

are also demonstrated by trance.

Measuring Thoughts

It is not yet possible to measure with both precision

and accuracy, the occurrence of a specific thought in a

specific person at a specific time. However, recent re

search at Yale University with functional magnetic

resonance imaging, or fast MRI, is demonstrating the

possibility of locating where in the human brain, cell

activity is greatest for specific stimulations. Fast

MRI or other advanced techniques may in the future

enable researchers to measure thoughts.

New technologies such as computerized electroen

cephalographic (EEG) frequency analysis, EEG topo

graphic brain mapping, positron emission tomogra

phy, regional cerebral blood flow, single photon emis

sion computed tomography and nuclear magnetic res

onance imaging allow more sophistication to be used

in the ongoing investigation of the neurophysiological

processes of cognitive functioning. A specific thought

may or may not contribute sufficient energy to allow

detection by one or more of the instruments above.

However, a power map study of fractal dimensional

analysis of EEG conducted recently at the Institute of

Hypnosis in Tokyo, seems to indicate that the dis

crete measurement of physiological changes of aware

ness is possible (Kawano, 1995).

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It seems as if there are three current directions of

inquiry: the neurophysiological, the social-psycholog

ical and the cognitive behaviorialist. The neurophysi

ological approach does not yet have a mapping from

physiological measurements to human thought. The

social-psychological approach can measure the gross

subjective and social effects of thoughts but this ap

proach seems to lack precision and provoke contro

versy. Cognitive behaviorialists apparently use systems concepts and analytical techniques, but until

now, trance seems not to be a subject for them.

One researcher in trance, Orne (1959), concluded

that objective correlates to the hypnotic condition

were not to be found in available physiological mea

surements. Orne concluded that he would have to

use verbal reports of subjective experience rather

than rely on objective measurements. Orne's conclu

sions seem to have led many current researchers to

base much of their research on the subjective reportsof hypnotic subjects. Perhaps the lack of the develop

ment of a hypnotic or trance theory which has not

been based on Orne's assumptions is due to the fact

that physiological measurements of thoughts simply

do not exist at this time, nor did they exist whenOrne made his conclusions.

If thoughts are based on our senses and on the pro

cesses of physical organs, it may be argued that our

thoughts have their roots in the muck and ooze of di

gestion, reproduction, circulation and respiration;and, although these chlinthonian processes are cycli

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cal, none of them are regular, nor are any of these

processes fully understood. What was perhaps easier

for research psychologists although finally less

precise was to turn away from the physical founda

tions of cognition and to deal with more palatable and

abstract concepts based on social and psychological

models.

Our thoughts are fundamentally based on our

health and the quality of the energy which is avail

able for mentation. Our thoughts are indirectly influ

enced by environmental mechanisms that are not yet

fully recognized nor understood. Our thoughts are

dependent on factors which are not easy to measure

and not easy to describe. When awareness is low or

more like an animal, our thoughts may be more easi

ly correlated to a variety of physiological causes. But,

when awareness is high or abstract, our thoughts

seem to take paths which are not directly derived

from physiological causes alone.

Yet, sequences of thoughts form to make sentences

and sentences form to make concepts. Bodies of con

cepts are the building blocks of abstract knowledge.

Thoughts as feelings underlay the social fabric and

drive relationships. It is the patterns of sequences of

thoughts that are important, and repeated patterns

give a weighted importance through their natural oc

currence.

In this model, thoughts are not only words or sen

tences; thoughts may be nonverbal, visual, sensual,

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tactile, abstract, auditory, etc. Cognitive behavioral

ists call these thought objects. The basic idea of the

model is to be specific as to the physiological founda

tions of thought for measurement purposes and to re

define explicitly the relatively abstract terms of psy

chology. This leaves room for the possibility that spe

cific thoughts will one day be measured and that the

results of these measurements will be processed by

computers. The model's theoretical concepts assume

the objective mensuration of thought must be defined

in such a way that there is no room for ambiguity.

The Model

Definitions

Throughout this article the following symbols are

used.

s is used to specify a thought sequence of an arbi

trary length.

e is used to specify the awareness of s.

c is used to specify a closed loop of thoughts. In gen

eral, c is a repeating subset of s.

d is the collective latent awareness that is created

by c. d is also referred as the dissociated trance plane

(sometimes referred to as the DTP) of c.

Subscripts on these symbols are meant to denote

specific instances of them.

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57Thoughts

As used here, s denotes a thought or thought object

which can be uniquely described by a set of physiolog

ical measurements. Subscripts on s, such as s1, s2,

etc. denote a specific sequence of thoughts which oc

cur sequentially in relative increasing time order

without specifying the time interval. A specific se

quence of thoughts may be denoted such as S = (s1,

s2, ..., sk).

Every person knows what he or she thinks. But not

a single person can record every thought as it occurs.

Symbols, such as words, or sentences, can be record

ed. Pictures can be painted which may represent a

group of thoughts, but the thoughts themselves can

not be painted. One might imagine that a poem or a

stream of consciousness utterance or a word salad

more accurately represents thoughts as they occur,

but it is more likely that such represented thoughts

are only a subsequence of the actual recorded

thoughts.

Energy and Awareness

We assume that there is an attenuation of the

awareness of a thought during the transition to its

successor and that attenuation occurs for physical en

ergy conservation reasons. While awareness is whol

ly dependent on the physical energy available for cog

nition, the model separates what may be termed raw

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cognitive energy from an awareness which is bound

to a specific thought.

e denotes a measure of an individual's awareness of

a thought. e is a set of measurements that uniquely

describes a measurable physiological condition, not a

subjective report. The awareness e1 is greatest when

the energy of consciousness is at s1, but it should also

be possible to measure the residual awareness e1

when consciousness is at s2. I will denote this second

measurement e1(s2), and note the identity, ei(si) = ei.

What this means is that when we think thoughts, the

thoughts don't last. They naturally fade away. The

fading away of a thought as awareness transits from

one thought to another follows an attenuation func

tion.

Transitions from one thought, sa to another, sb, oc

cur when eb > ea(sb), by definition. One important

measurement is the average transition value eg

which occurs when eb > eg > ea(sb). eg is not a con

stant value. Thoughts fade away or become "uncon

scious" depending on some physiological values which

are always changing. eg is that point of awareness

when one thought changes into another.

We assume that there is an attenuation of the

awareness of a thought s1 during the transition of

awareness to its successor s2. This attenuation re

sults in predecessor thoughts becoming latent specifi

cally when e1(s2) < eg. When we have a new

thought, we forget about the old thought.

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Attenuation of a thought at e1(s2) < eg does not nec

essarily imply that e1(s2) is an "unconscious" state.

We can sometimes, under some conditions, keep old

thoughts in our heads as well as new thoughts.

Thresholds, Conditions and States

We now consider what is meant by a state of aware

ness K. Whenever e is within a defined set range of

values, K1 < e < K2, there are associated two thresh

olds of awareness, K1 and K2, or conditions of aware

ness, K1 < e, and e < K2. Within these awareness

condition boundary thresholds, an individuals aware

ness is described as being in a specific state of aware

ness.

Another way to look at K is as a set of measurable

enabling or disabling physiological conditions. For

example, K may be a limit in which e is disabled for

critical thinking and enabled for hallucination. Such

a value for K would circumscribe states of awareness

in which "trance logic" would also be found.

Note that while e is defined as a multidimensional

vector of unknown dimension, the thresholds K are

also sets of values. The conditions "less than" and

"greater than" are not operations on scalars, but on

the multidimensional vector e, so conditions should

be interpreted so as to unambiguously place e either

within or outside a corresponding threshold range.

In the normal awakened condition, we do have

thoughts. If we could record them all, we would dis

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cover one long fuzzy sequence of them starting, per

haps, at birth, and ending, perhaps, at death. We

would be awake during only some portions of this

long thought sequence. Other portions we would not.

If our awareness threshold at birth is Ka and our

awareness threshold at death is Kw, and we focus

only on thoughts that we have during the awake con

dition, Kb, of consciousness, then the sequence of

thoughts within the awareness interval (Ka, Kw),

would appear to be discontinuous.

However, within the continuous awareness interval

(Ka, Kw) are a multiple set of awareness states which

are interesting to researchers. We can list some of

them grossly: awake, sleep, dreaming, altered state

of consciousness (ASC), trance, etc. but these terms

are not sufficiently defined at present to be able to

discriminate between adjacent states with both preci

sion and accuracy. (Tart, 1992) It would be helpful to

know precisely which physi